{"id":3371,"date":"2014-04-28T15:33:17","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T15:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulkagame.com\/_test_&web\/?p=3371"},"modified":"2017-07-17T10:49:43","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T10:49:43","slug":"we-want-to-be-in-charge-of-our-own-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/?p=3371","title":{"rendered":"We want to be in charge of our own future"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Los Angeles, 28 April 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Kagame ended his first day of the three day visit to Los Angeles with a reception hosted by Gen Next and moderated by Ambassador Pierre Prosper, former Ambassador for War Crimes.<\/p>\n

Introducing the event, Ambassador Prosper described President Kagame:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President is a hero for the way he has positioned his country for success for the future and for ending the genocide.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Addressing the audience, President Kagame described Rwanda\u2019s history as a testament to both the worst and the best of humanity:<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty years ago, we lost one million people, ten thousand people were dying every day at the hands of Rwandans. The genocide is an example of the worst human beings can do.\u00a0 Twenty years down the road, reconciliation is showing us the best human beings can be as we work to leave this tragic past behind us.\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

President Kagame added that Rwanda was transformed into a country of hope and dignity:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked together to bring the broken pieces of our country back together. It has taken hard work and our diversity has been harnessed for strength instead of weakness as was the case in our past. It is about bringing people back together and giving them hope that it is not longer a hopeless and helpless situation.<\/em> Today, Rwandans have hope, a sense of dignity and pride, they know what they can achieve who they can be and how they can shape their future. \u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Speaking on Rwanda\u2019s view on aid, President Kagame emphasized to ensure aid serves as an enable of self reliance:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe accept assistance, we need it but we will be in the driving seat of rebuilding our country. We will think about what needs to be done and we will associate friends and partners. We want to be in charge of our own future.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Responding to a question on Rwanda\u2019s critics, President Kagame challenged the factual basis for some of Rwanda\u2019s criticism:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don’t want to be criticized, say nothing, do nothing and be nothing. I have no desire of doing nothing. People will talk but I have a job to do and that is to give Rwandans security, development, opportunity. Rwandans will judge me differently than journalists who have never visited Rwanda and only know about the country from surfing the Internet. The question is, are our children educated, do our people have health care, are they empowered and do they participate?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The reception hosted by Gen Next began with an introduction by former US Ambassador to the UN, Robert O\u2019Brien denounced the failure of the UN to prevent the genocide and described Rwanda\u2019s growth as remarkable:<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of ordering the UN troops to provide safe haven and stop the genocide, the UN reduced the peacekeepers. We could not get a resolution to pass, while this is happening, thousands were getting killed every day.<\/em> This can never be allowed to happen again.\u00a0 \u201c<\/em><\/p>\n

Robert O\u2019Brien added that the French intervention allowed for the continuing of killing until the Genocide was ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1994, a historic man saved his people. Today, Rwanda has been transformed. It has come back from the bottom of the pit and has become an example of great leadership and democracy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles, 28 April 2014 President Kagame ended his first day of the three day visit to Los Angeles with a reception hosted by Gen Next and moderated by Ambassador Pierre Prosper, former Ambassador for War Crimes. Introducing the event, Ambassador Prosper described President Kagame: \u201cThe President is a hero for the way he has positioned his country for success for the future and for ending the genocide.\u201d Addressing the audience, President Kagame described Rwanda\u2019s history as a testament to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","post-has-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8975,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371\/revisions\/8975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}